Legal

Terms of Service

Version 1.2 · Effective 2026-06-01

Welcome to rule26 ("the Service"), operated by Springhead, LLC ("Springhead," "we," "us," or "our"). These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of rule26. By creating an account, subscribing, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

1. Who can use rule26

The Service is intended for adult U.S.-based independent technical experts (e.g., engineering, scientific, or other domain experts) retained as testifying experts in federal civil litigation who produce reports under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(2)(B). By creating an account, you represent and warrant that:

• You are at least 18 years old;
• You have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract;
• You are using the Service in connection with your own professional practice and not on behalf of an unauthorized third party;
• Your use of the Service complies with all applicable laws, professional standards, and ethical rules.

2. What rule26 is — and what it is not

rule26 is a drafting and document-assembly tool that structures your working notes into the format required by FRCP Rule 26(a)(2)(B); maintains your cumulative curriculum vitae, list of authored publications, and rolling four-year prior-testimony list; validates citations against authoritative sources and flags any that cannot be confirmed; and exports a Microsoft Word document that you, as the expert, review, sign, and serve.

You are the author of every report. rule26 drafts, structures, and checks — it does not author opinions, supply expert judgment, or replace any element of your professional work. The opinions, analysis, methodology, and conclusions in every report are yours; you alone are responsible for their accuracy, completeness, and admissibility.

rule26 is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Nothing the Service produces or communicates is legal advice. Use of the Service does not establish an attorney-client relationship.

rule26 does not provide expert-witness services. The Service is software you use as a tool in producing your own work product. It does not testify, opine, or render expert services.

3. AI-generated output — a critical disclaimer

rule26 uses artificial-intelligence models (currently provided by Anthropic, PBC) to assist in structuring your reports and identifying citations. AI-generated output can be incorrect, incomplete, or misleading. You acknowledge and agree that:

• You must independently review and verify every section of every draft before relying on it, signing it, or serving it;
• You must independently verify every citation in your report — even those the Service marks as "verified." The citation checker is an assist, not a guarantee;
• The Service's structure, formatting, and gap prompts are aids, not substitutes for your professional judgment;
• You bear sole responsibility for everything you sign and file. Your signature on the report represents your independent professional opinion, not the Service's output.

The Service is provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE." Springhead makes no warranty that AI-generated content is accurate, complete, or fit for any particular purpose, including any litigation purpose.

4. Your account and your content

4.1 Account credentials

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us promptly at contact@rule26.app of any unauthorized use.

4.2 Your content

"Your Content" means everything you submit to the Service, including your profile information, working notes, case data, cumulative state (CV, publications, testimony list), and finalized reports.

You own Your Content. You retain all right, title, and interest in and to Your Content. You grant Springhead a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, process, transmit, and display Your Content solely to provide the Service to you. This license terminates when Your Content is deleted from the Service, except to the extent we must retain copies for legal compliance or as set forth in our Privacy Policy.

4.3 Confidentiality of case data

We treat the case data and working notes you submit as confidential. We do not:

• Use Your Content to train or improve any AI model, including the third-party models that power the Service;
• Share Your Content with any third party except sub-processors strictly necessary to provide the Service (see the Privacy Policy);
• Access Your Content except as necessary to operate, debug, or support the Service, or as legally required.

Anthropic, PBC (our AI provider) has contractually committed under its commercial API terms that it does not train its models on customer data submitted via the API.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose;
• Submit content that infringes any third-party right or violates any law, court order, or professional ethics rule;
• Use the Service to produce reports for any matter in which you are not the retained, designated expert;
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, scrape, or circumvent any security measure of the Service;
• Use the Service to send unsolicited messages, spam, or malicious code;
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Service except as expressly permitted.

We may suspend or terminate your account at any time for violations of these Terms.

6. Subscription, billing, and refunds

6.1 Subscription

The Service is a paid subscription. The current price is shown at rule26.app/subscribe. Billing is monthly in advance, automatically renewing until cancelled.

6.2 Payments

Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. ("Stripe"). By subscribing, you also agree to Stripe's terms and authorize us to charge your payment method.

6.3 Refund policy

During the first 30 days of your initial subscription, you may request a full refund for any reason by emailing contact@rule26.app. After the first 30 days, cancellation stops future billing but does not refund the current month.

6.4 Cancellation

You may cancel anytime via the customer portal accessible from your account. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you retain access through that period.

6.5 Price changes

We may change the subscription price on at least 30 days' written notice to your account email. If you do not accept the new price, you may cancel before the next billing cycle.

7. Disclaimer of warranties

8. Limitation of liability

9. Your indemnification of Springhead

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Springhead, its affiliates, and its personnel from and against any third-party claim, action, proceeding, judgment, settlement, loss, liability, cost, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to:

• Your use of the Service;
• Any content you submit to the Service;
• Any opinion, report, testimony, or other work product you produce using the Service;
• Your breach of these Terms or violation of any law or third-party right;
• Any claim that any opinion, report, or testimony you signed or filed was incorrect, incomplete, misleading, sanctionable, or otherwise actionable.

This indemnification is independent of the limitation of liability in Section 8 and applies whether or not the Service operated as intended. We will give you prompt notice of any claim, reasonable cooperation in the defense, and the right to control the defense and settlement, provided that any settlement requiring an admission of liability or a payment by Springhead requires our consent.

10. Springhead's limited indemnification

Springhead will defend you against any third-party claim alleging that your authorized use of the Service infringes any U.S. patent, copyright, or trademark, and will pay any judgment finally awarded by a court of competent jurisdiction. This indemnification does not apply to any claim arising from (a) Your Content, (b) any combination of the Service with other products or services, (c) any modification of the Service not by Springhead, or (d) your use of the Service in violation of these Terms.

This is Springhead's sole liability and your sole remedy for any such claim.

11. Term and termination

These Terms apply from your first use of the Service and continue until terminated. We may suspend or terminate your access immediately if you breach these Terms or use the Service in a way that creates risk for Springhead, other users, or third parties.

You may terminate by cancelling your subscription. Your Content is retained while your account is active. You may request deletion of Your Content at any time by contacting us; deletion is performed manually on request.

Record-integrity / legal-defense carve-out: when you finalize a report, the Service creates a durable, metadata-only record for record integrity, dispute defense, and compliance, and this record is retained for up to seven (7) years even after you delete your account or request deletion. This durable record consists ONLY of: (a) a cryptographic fingerprint (SHA-256 hash) of the finalized report's content, (b) the Service's server-computed citation verdicts, (c) the acknowledgements you made at finalization, and (d) identifiers, timestamps, provenance, and version information. It does NOT retain your case content. The durable record does not store your working notes, your case data, or the drafted text of your report; the fingerprint is a one-way hash from which the underlying content cannot be reconstructed. The Service's append-only audit log likewise retains only the event and a one-way content hash of the change — not the before-and-after text of Your Content. When you delete your account (or request deletion), your raw working notes and drafted report prose are deleted, and the audit log's raw content is purged; the metadata-only record above is what survives, so a document you filed can still be verified against its fingerprint and its citation verdicts and acknowledgements can still be shown, without retaining the case content itself. This carve-out survives termination.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including Sections 3 (AI Disclaimer), 4.3 (Confidentiality), 7 (Warranties), 8 (Limitation), 9 (Your Indemnification), 10 (Our Indemnification), 12 (Arbitration), and 13 (Miscellaneous) — survive.

12. Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Arkansas, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles.

Binding arbitration. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be held in Little Rock, Arkansas, or via video conference at the arbitrator's discretion. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

No class actions. You and Springhead each agree that any dispute will be brought only in your or our individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, or representative proceeding.

Small-claims exception. Either party may bring an individual action in small-claims court instead of arbitration.

Injunctive relief exception. Either party may seek injunctive relief in court for unauthorized use of intellectual property or breach of confidentiality, notwithstanding the arbitration requirement.

13. Miscellaneous

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Springhead regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements.

Changes to these Terms. We may modify these Terms by posting an updated version at rule26.app/terms and giving notice to your account email at least 30 days before material changes take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force.

No waiver. Failure to enforce any right does not waive that right.

Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms to a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

Notices. We may give notice via your account email. You may give us notice at contact@rule26.app.

Independent contractors. Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, joint venture, employment, or fiduciary relationship.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email contact@rule26.app.

Springhead, LLC